Turkey Begins to Crack Under Trump Pressure, but Erdogan Defiant

Sanctions and tariffs are taking their toll on the Turkish economy, putting President Erdogan in a box.

By NTK Staff | 08.10.2018 @2:00pm

Turkey’s currency, the lira, plummeted Friday as President Trump announced the doubling of tariffs on America’s NATO ally. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attempted to rally his citizens to support the country’s monetary basis in response.

Relations between the NATO allies have deteriorated in recent months over the Turkish government’s refusal to release American pastor Andrew Brunson.

The Trump administration even imposed sanctions on key members of the Erdogan government over the detention. The White House announced at the beginning of this month that Turkey’s justice and interior ministers would face diplomatic repercussions over Brunson’s years-long detention. Turkey arrested the pastor in the wake of a failed 2016 military coup.

Trump escalated the dispute on Friday, punishing the entire country with tariffs for its leaders’ authoritarian tendencies:

I have just authorized a doubling of Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum with respect to Turkey as their currency, the Turkish Lira, slides rapidly downward against our very strong Dollar! Aluminum will now be 20% and Steel 50%. Our relations with Turkey are not good at this time!

According to CNBC, Erdogan begged his citizens to band together in the face of this pressure, employing strong rhetoric against President Trump:

“Change the euros, the dollars and the gold that you are keeping beneath your pillows into lira at our banks. This is a domestic and national struggle,” Erdogan said, according to an Associated Press translation.

Erdogan said Turkey was facing an “economic war” and noted the country would respond to those countries who had started it.

“We are facing economic attacks today, and we need to defend our country,” Erdogan said, according to a translation. “The economic attack against us now is the same as the coup attempt against us. I’m urging our country to increase outputs, to increase exports.”

The authoritarian’s plea seems to have fallen on deaf ears, however, with the value of Turkish currency and Turkey’s financial markets falling.